No abstract
Inspection is critical to ensuring the quality of infrastructure construction. In recent years, state highway agencies (SHAs) have been facing the challenge of a shortage of experienced inspectors due to retirements, workforce downsizing, and resignations to take jobs in the private sector. There is a critical need to retain and manage the accumulated construction inspection knowledge (what, when, and how to inspect) and integrate this knowledge into the construction business process. This paper presents an ontological approach to managing inspection knowledge and the development of a risk-based digital inspection system integrated with the construction process. The developed system consists of five knowledge compartments: inspection activities prioritized based on risk; activity-centered pay items; inspection check items; detailed checks that include priority, frequency, object, attribute, and acceptance criteria; and training materials (optional). This risk-based system is designed to align with the construction process by connecting an activity to a pay item and that pay item to a check item, resulting in an automatically generated comprehensive inspection checklist for the activity. The optional training materials are designed to train inspectors in real time on an as-needed basis. Since risk is embedded in every knowledge compartment, this system not only automates and retains the inspection knowledge but also enables SHAs to allocate their limited resources to the most critical items. This system is currently being implemented by the Indiana Department of Transportation as a digital inspection protocol integrated in its e-construction process. Inspection is a critical step in ensuring the quality of infrastructure construction. In recent years, state highway agencies (SHAs) have been facing the challenges caused by the decreasing number of experienced construction inspectors due to retirements, staff downsizing, and resignations to take jobs in the private sector. The data collected in a synthesis of staffing requirements in SHAs reveal that between 2000 and 2010 the in-house personnel available to managing roadway infrastructure decreased by an average of 9.78% whereas the total lanemiles in the systems increased by an average of 4.1% (1). For example, the construction inspection staff in the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) shrank 15% between 2011 and 2015. The most common strategy SHAs are adopting to address the staffing shortfall is outsourcing such construction duties, which is costly and unreliable (1). Personnel shortage is just one obvious and direct consequence of experienced staff members leaving SHAs. The loss of knowledge, especially in construction inspection, is having a much more profound negative impact on organizational efficiency in performing timely and quality inspection tasks to ensure the long-term performance of roadway infrastructure. Therefore, a critical need for SHAs is the ability to retain and manage their construction inspection knowledge (what, when, and how based...
In their pursuit of ensuring the quality and long-term performance of pavements, state highway agencies (SHAs) have established specifications for materials testing and construction inspection processes as critical components of their quality assurance programs. SHAs face a grand challenge, however, in the ever-growing gap between the demand for inspection and the available resources. Many strategies have been proposed over time to meet this challenge by optimizing the resource allocation process. A promising approach is to allocate limited resources to the most critical inspection items. This paper presents a novel risk-based prioritization approach for construction inspection considering quality, safety, cost, and time. Specifically, the risk is assessed in two aspects: the possibility of not meeting the specification requirements and the severity of the consequences. The scope of this study includes earthwork, concrete and asphalt pavement, and bridge decks. A comprehensive list of construction inspection items was compiled from the standard specifications and manuals of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), and narrowed down to a core set based on survey responses and interviews with INDOT domain experts. The resulting core set was aligned with the construction process, and INDOT expert opinions were sought to assess the risks and prioritize the inspection checklist. The resulting prioritized list can help INDOT and other SHAs nationwide to optimize their allocation of resources for inspection. Since all the inspection items are aligned with the construction process, implementation is straightforward: field engineers know not only what to inspect but also when to do so.
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